(pg 15) So you didn’t think you could yoga. Nonsense! Of course you can. Many believe they have to contort like a pretzel to do yoga.

More nonsense! There is a yoga for you, and this is it. The times have been shortened. The rests in between postures have been extended. Plus there have been some adjustments to the yoga to allow for our differently-proportioned bodies.

(pg 10) What is Kundalini Yoga? It’s yoga and meditation that is a highly evolved technology using posture, breath, sound, hand position and movement to create an optimum balance between all the body’s systems. Look at the names of the yoga and meditations—Meditation for a Calm Heart, Basic Spinal Energy Series, Meditation to Conquer Self-Animosity, etc. Every yoga and meditation has a specific purpose.

What I am presenting here is Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi BhajanÓ, a yogic master from India. It is safe, effective and powerful. It works on the brain, nerves, blood, muscles, organs and glands. Kundalini Yoga will help expand your awareness of yourself and enhance your connection with the Universe. Through your yoga practice, your ability to make healthy and positive changes in your life will improve substantially.

(pg 17) The breathwork is my favorite part of Kundalini Yoga. Before long, you too will be breathing deeper, bringing more oxygen to your brain, organs and muscles. You’ll be more conscious of your breathing and lessen your tendency to hold your breath. Learning to breathe more deeply and consistently will balance your nervous system and in turn both relax and energize you. (I have to breathe to relax and energize myself? Isn’t there a pill for that?) All that, of course, will help you improve your focus in the moment. Once you’ve started to breathe properly and feel the effects, you’ll wonder why you weren’t taught this back in grade school.

When you’re more relaxed, what’s the next obvious result? You’ll experience improved sleep. Which, of course, will help relax you even more and you’ll feel more alert during the day. Then when your blood pressure starts coming down, you’ll really start wondering why you weren’t taught this in grade school. Finally, when doing Kundalini Yoga, your internal organs and endocrine system (glands) get a gentle massage. This creates an overall detoxification effect and aids in digestion.

(pg 41) Breath awareness begins with recognizing that the breath is not just physical, but also involves the subtle life force of the mind and body called prana.

Mastery of the breath is the foundation for

§       Promoting health and vitality

§       Opening the range and creativity of the emotions

§       Controlling the moods

§       Developing concentration

§       Promoting a feeling of connectedness

Many people learn to breathe backwards: they inhale by pulling the belly in, thus making less space for the breath rather than more. People who are anxious or who smoke frequently tend to have this pattern of shallow breathing. Probably the single most important thing a beginner can learn by practicing Kundalini Yoga is how to breathe correctly.

(pg 55) The ability to relax is essential for physical and mental well-being. Most people have difficulty with it because of their inner dialogues that create fear, anger, impatience and other self-destructive emotions. These drain the reserve energy of the nervous system and create patterns of defenses and resistance against the discomfort.

Relaxation that releases such patterns and that opens us to a new inner organization of our resources is essential. To do it effectively, we need to change the distribution of prana in the body and activate systems of nerves that allow the self to re-organize patterns of being and behaving.

By penetrating to the core of the pattern of our discomfort and relaxing into our true self, life becomes new, fresh and reinvigorated. Lightness and hope come into every moment. Then we can let the miracles happen.

(pg 167) What triggers your self-judgment? A conversation? A seemingly random thought? Maybe a TV show, or a song, or a billboard or an aroma? Practically anything can trigger a wave of self-judgments. It starts innocently enough, with a reminder that you should have taken care of this or that or you didn’t call your mother, or something where you didn’t fulfill your obligation(s). But that something triggers a reaction in you and a past self-judgment reappears. Self-judgments aren’t temporary. They infect you till you let them go. Once they’re re-experienced and remind you that you’re not perfect, another one crops up. And another one. Soon your other fears, current and past, start to well up inside of you. Each reappearance of a self-judgment takes you down the path of past self-judgments, your perceived missed opportunities and guilt. Has this ever happened to you before? Join the club. Membership is almost seven billion and still growing.

(pg 197) Speech…the power of creation. “In the beginning, there was the WORD.” Might your speech be powerful, too? Of course it is! What comes out of your mouth goes into your ears. (Don’t we all just love to listen to ourselves talk, or am I just projecting?) As I said earlier, “Garbage in equals garbage out.” Your brain is a type of computer, and part of its programming comes straight out of your own mouth. That means you program yourself with your very words. And you should hear some of the crap that comes out! You, as it turns out, are the source of some of your really negative programming, and that negative programming produces bad habits and an unfulfilling life. Egads! Sometimes your speech is unfocused and lazy. You probably believe that what you’re saying is true at some level, and yet you don’t realize that you’re putting the absolute worst spin on the topic you’re talking about. But don’t worry, you can change your speech and reprogram your brain for better, happier results.

When you start paying attention to and process what you’re actually saying about yourself, your life and your surroundings, you’ll be stunned.

You “should” yourself into shame. You “can’t” yourself into mediocrity. You “still” yourself into unfulfilled expectations. You “not” yourself into a corner and you “never” yourself into oblivion.